To call Black Myth Wukong a success would be an understatement. It sold 10m copies in just three days, and remains the second most played game on Steam. For comparison, its sales are almost equivalent to Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy. It received countless award nominations (and won a few too). Its physical release has saved businesses. And it’s still not out on Xbox.
In short, Game Science’s action-RPG has been a phenomenon that’s arisen amid a shift in the Chinese games industry and caused a global stir. As Nikkei Asia reported, China banned the production and sales of consoles until as recently as 2015. Since then, the dominance of mobile games has declined and the popularity of PC and console gaming has risen, fuelled further by investments from Chinese conglomerate Tencent and Sony with its PlayStation China Hero Project. Wukong is now considered the country’s first AAA release.
As Wu Li, CEO of Bejing-based publisher CE-Asia told me, the Chinese gaming industry has boomed alongside the country’s economy. “From 2003 to 2024, the total revenue of the Chinese gaming industry increased from about 10bn yuan to 390bn yuan, and total Chinese players reached 674 million,” he says. “It seems China has become one of the largest and most important single gaming markets in the world.” What’s more, the industry has attracted strong talent too, he says. “A sophisticated game industry chain is taking shape.”
Following in the wake of Black Myth: Wukong are a string of other Chinese-developed action-RPGs: Phantom Blade Zero, Tides of Annihilation, Lost Soul Aside, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, and AI Limit to name a few, each with their own unique spin on a familiar genre. Of course, many of these games began development before Wukong was released. Indeed, Ultizero Games’ Lost Soul Aside began development over 15 years ago as a Final Fantasy 15 and Devil May Cry-inspired fan project. Now, it’s finally nearing release.
But after the phenomenon of Wukong, have expectations for Chinese-made games changed? And what is it about action-RPGs that’s proving so popular among the country’s developers?
The pressures of Wukong
To find out, I spoke with the developers of three of those aforementioned games, and each noted the increased pressure following the success of Black Myth: Wukong – but also the boost in confidence it’s provided.
“It’s not necessarily changed our [expectations], but maybe it’s changed others’ expectations and anticipation of us,” says Phantom Blade Zero director “Soulframe” Liang. “We did receive more resources, but we also received more pressure from the success of Black Myth: Wukong.”